Fujica 16mm SLR
The Fujica 16mm SLR is a design concept elaborated by Fuji in the 1960s, only known from the special issue of on Fuji cameras. Mizukawa, pp.113–4 of no.44. Description The example pictured in Mizukawa's article is certainly a mock-up. It has the shape of a soap bar, with smooth rounded edges. Most of the camera is clear coloured, and the bottom face and lens surrounds are black. The fixed lens is situated in the middle of the front face, towards the bottom. Its features are not specified on the mock-up, and no focusing control is visible. (The benefits of SLR viewing with a fixed-focus lens are not obvious, and actual examples of the camera would perhaps have received a focusing ring.) The viewfinder eyepiece is centred behind the camera, and the light rays are presumably directed by a mirror and pentaprism. The camera is built around some form of 16mm cassette, perhaps that of the Minolta 16, and its exposure format is 12×17mm. Mizukawa, p.113 of no.44, says that the design was drawn after 12×17mm cameras using the JIS cartridge were released: JISのカートリッジを使った12×17mmサイズのカメラが出てきたのに刺激されて. The film is advanced by a wheel placed on the front face, driven by the right hand fingers, allowing to control the camera with a single hand. The function of this wheel is explained in Mizukawa, p.114 of no.44. The release button is at the top, next to the advance wheel, and the exposure counter is at the opposite end of the top face, under a round window. There is a single lug at the bottom right, for a wrist strap. The shutter is of the rotary focal-plane type, as on the Olympus Pen F. Mizukawa, p.114 of no.44. The rotary disc travels through the viewfinder, acting as an eyepiece blind. The speed setting knob is on the rear, behind the release button. It contains a small window to set the ASA film sensitivity. The range of speeds is B, 1–2000. The position for 1/60 is of a different colour for some reason — probably not related to flash synchronization because of the nature of the shutter, which should be synchronized at all speeds. No flash connection is visible on the pictures of the mock-up though. The final camera would have been equipped a built-in exposure meter, presumably TTL, for shutter-priority automated exposure. Shutter priority automated exposure is specified in Mizukawa, p.114 of no.44. It seems that no other exposure mode would have been provided, and the mock-up does not show any aperture control. The mock-up only has a FUJICA badge on the front face, under the advance wheel. The development probably did not go far enough for the camera to receive a commercial name, and it is likely that no fully functional example was made. The concept of a subminiature SLR was quite novel at the time of the project. After the introduction of 110 film, Asahi and Minolta developed their own ideas with the Pentax Auto 110 and Minolta 110 Zoom SLR. In the 1980s, Fuji continued to work on the same concept with the Fujica 8×11mm SLR and the Fuji Half SLR designs, none of which came into production either. Notes Bibliography * Mizukawa Shigeo (水川繁雄). "Fuji Shashin Firumu no shisakuki" (富士写真フィルムの試作機, Fuji Shashin Film prototypes). Pp.110–5. (The author was working in the camera design section of Fuji Shashin Kōki from 1961 to 1997.) Category: Japanese 16mm film Category: Japanese SLR Category: Fuji Category: F